The facility on Harrison Avenue in Canton began operations Dec. 17, 1915, where “steel billets were heated, then pierced to form rough tubes, rolled to approximate size, cold-drawn to exact dimensions, straightened, annealed and sent to the bearing factory,” according to the 1998 book Timken: from Missouri to Mars – a Century of Leadership in Manufacturing.

H.H. didn’t stop there. He proceeded in 1917 to build a melt shop, the country’s largest electric-furnace facility at the time. By the following year, Timken had invested about $1 million in steelmaking and put us on the path to where we are today. All of our steelmaking is still in the city where H.H. began it.

He also began a metallurgical research program that led to the use of a nickel-molybdenum alloy as a basic bearing material. That ongoing research – and H.H.’s drive for innovation – continues 100 years later with the TimkenSteel Technology Center.

Next year, we’ll celebrate our centennial at TimkenSteel – marking the anniversary of when we melted our first heat of clean steel.